Okami
by SandTanukiKunoichi
Summary: Once upon a time there was a village by the name of Heionouka. Legend tells of a demon that threatened the village and a wolf that risked it all to protect it. Controlling the fabric of existence, the wolf won the battle, but the story doesn't end there..
1. The legand continues

Yeah... It's basically Okami Naruto-style...

Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own either the Naruto series nor the Okami series.

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><p><em>Long, long ago, a tiny village known as Heionouka lay nestled in a grove of proud and beautiful cherry blossoms.<em>

_Each and every tree around the village was honored as a god, however, the village was not without its dark secrets._

_To satiate the hunger of Orochi, a fearsome cave-dwelling beast, a young maiden was offered as a sacrifice at the annual festival. With the body like a mountain and eight mounted-on necks the size of tree trunks, its blood-red eyes alone were said to curse anyone who gazed into them. No one dared to disobey the horrific beast._

_When the night of the sacrifice grew near, a mysterious white wolf appeared outside the village._

_This wolf, its coat as brilliant as snow, was dubbed Shiranui. The wolf kept a watchful eye on anyone who ventured outside the village, and made a habit of patrolling the streets at night. People assumed the wolf to be a familiar of Orochi._

_One villager took it upon himself to face the fearsome Shiranui. The warrior Shikarura attempted many times to challenge the wolf, but his attempts were thwarted by Shiranui's swift movements._

_Before long, the night of the accursed festival had arrived. A white plumed arrow heralded the coming sacrifice; Piercing the sky, the arrow sunk its shaft squarely into the home of Terumi, the village's loveliest and smartest maiden. Shikarura, harboring a secret love for Terumi, was enraged by this sign and determined to put an end to Orochi once and for all, traveled to the beast's cave in place of his beloved._

_The Moon Cave, a place as dark as evil itself, served as Orochi's home. As Shikarura stood bravely in front of the entrance, a beast appeared, eyes glowing crimson on eight thrashing necks. Orochi stood tall before him, anxious for another sacrifice, but Shikarura leapt with incredible grace and swung his blade valiantly. On and on he sliced into the moonless night, but Orochi's hide was like steel, not even leaving a scratch..._

_At long last, Shikarura, his energy spent for the intense fight, dropped to his knees, fatigued and gasping for breath. He knew he was staring death in the face, but it was then that the wolf appeared. As if to protect Shikarura, it stood its ground before Orochi, its coat shining brilliantly in the darkness of the cave._

_Alas, it was Shiranui, the wolf that dwelled outside the village, baring its fearsome claws as it leapt at Orochi, which reared its terrifying fangs for battle yet again. The two beasts struggled wildly and thrashed in the darkness, the spectacle mysterious and frightening as it continued. Shiranui summoned gusts of divine wind to counter Orochi's flames and as it closed in on Shiranui, sharpened claws glistening, a giant tree suddenly sprouted forth and shielded the wolf._

_Shiranui fought gallantly to gain the upper hand, however Orochi was protected by a mystical power and was not easily bested. Shiranui, covered in gashes and coat dyed crimson, stood exhausted before the mighty Orochi. It saw a chance to strike what would be the final blow, but Shiranui refused to give in and with its last ounce of strength, the majestic wolf gazed heavenward and unleashed a mighty howl. Suddenly, the black clouds overhead dissipated and the light from above glinted off Shikarura's sword as a beacon of hope._

_Guided by his sword, Shikarura, who had been taking shelter in the shadows, stood proudly to face his adversary. Channeling all his strength into his scarred and battered arms, he ferociously leapt toward Orochi, his sword poised high. The golden sword danced in his hands like a puppet and, one by one, Orochi's fearsome heads separated from their owner. Orochi's broken body collapsed in a lake of its own blood and, in that instant, the curse that plagued the villagers was lifted and the sun shone once again as the battle subsided._

_Shiranui had succumbed to Orochi's poison and struggled to breathe before Shikarura scooped the wolf into his arms and returned to Heionouka, but when they got to the village, Shiranui was no longer moving. The head of the village gently stroked the wolf's head and, in response, Shiranui let out a hoarse and pitiful bark before closing its eyes, as if it were going to slumber. Peace had at last returned to Heionouka Village and in honor of Shiranui's heroic exploits, the people of the village erected a shrine and placed a statue of a wolf within it._

_Shikarura's sword was christened by the villagers as "Tsukuyomi" and placed inside the Moon Cave, looking forward to an age of endless peace..._

_However, this is not the end of the story, for there is more to this tale than most people know._

_One-hundred years had passed since Shikarura and Shiranui's heroic exploits._

_It happened so quickly, that no one in the village even took notice..._

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><p>A foggy, dirt Sandō sparsely lined with trees that lead to stone stairs, a large stone and tiled Torii-styled Haiden, and an entrance to a cave, but it looked darker as the sun was setting. However, when one looks deeper into the cave, the dark and foggy room which held a Honden with a large, dark bell and a sword sheathed in the stone doesn't hold a god, but a demon, for this place is the Moon Cave.<p>

But one lazy and somewhat cowardly male, whose shadowed face and body depicted that he was about eighteen years of age, came to this resting place of evil to prove that the legend of Orochi was merely folklore and nothing more.

When he stopped, he examined the blue sword before he quietly said to himself, "Is this legendary sword, Tsukuyomi? The same blade that banished the dreaded Orochi? ...Nah, it couldn't be, for it's just a troublesome legend..."

The figure then completely drew the sword without any effort, but when he did, eight pairs blood-red eyes landed on the figure, which caused him to drop the sword out of surprise and fear. As soon as the sword made contact with the ground, a dark-purple swirl of evil power came from the place the sword once was, freeing the evil power thought to be dead forever. The figure ran away from the evil power and crimson eyes, but tripped half-way across the room and turned his head, now looking at one of the large, shadowed creature's heads face-to-face.

It then said, reptilian voice low and scratchy from lack of use, _**"O he who seeks power... He who has broken my bonds, speak the words, 'I wish darkness unto the world'. Utter that prayer unto me and unleash my true power..."**_

The figure stay silent before he got back up and ran for his life, which caused an enraged roar to course through the beast's domain before the monster followed as best as it could after the figure. The figure was faster though, for he was half way down the Sandō when the beast collided with the stone Torii-styled Haiden, one of the eight head hit against it really hard before the seven others destroyed it, freeing most of the body out the cave but not far from it before it sent its dark power over the country of Heiwakokka.

The figure made it back to Heionouka, unaware that he was seen and followed, before the dark power started spread, but after an earthquake and a loud, angered roar, a dark wind pasted, which caused plants to die, animals to disappear, and people to turn into statues, making life stand still.

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><p><em>A horrible tragedy suddenly swept over the land!<em>

_However, there was one village that seemed to escape the terrible curse, for Heionouka Village enjoyed the protection of their sacred tree._

_It is here that the real story begins..._

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><p>The statue dedicated to Shiranui stood as chaos, literally, swirled above the village, boulders carried by the wind like they were blades of grass and tsunamis raging the once calm sea, before the wind hurled a large boulder towards the shrine. Just as it was about to collide, a wood sprite with cherry-blossom pink hair that was mostly in a bun, but her long bangs reached to about her waist, eyes that were greener than any leaf or blade of grass, divine smoke around her, triangular, dangling blue earrings, light pink kimono with gold highlights, deep purple-pink obi, and an opening in the front that, along with a leafy-accent, made her light skin-toned cleavage look like a peach in most Japanese art-works.<p>

Said wood sprite puffed her cheeks out in a huff of annoyance as she said aloud, "How annoying! This just as the prophecy of doom predicted. Why have these demons continue to ravage this land?"

She turned to the statue and continued with, "I must act quickly, for there's little time. My powers have diminished over the years of protecting this area, so I don't have much energy to keep doing so..."

The sprite drew a magical circle which the Divine Instrument, Divine Retribution, appeared in the center of before the sprite said, "Amaterasu-sama, now is the time, please shine your divine light upon this broken and corrupted world!"

The sprite threw the Divine Instrument up into the air, but it redirected its path and landed on the back of the wolf statue, a ring of fire surrounding the outer-edge of Divine Retribution before the statue came to life.

But instead of a wolf, a young maiden of about nineteen with pale skin, dark eyes, long snow-white hair with spiky, but cloud-like wispy-looking bangs that spanned her back completely and was tied near the base of her spine, wolf tail and ears, claw-like fingernails and toenails, and had red markings all over her body. Her outfit consisted of a white kimono with a short skirt-part, the ends of the sleeves were accented with black cloth and red thread, the tops of the sleeves were red, slitted and connected to the main part of the kimono by crisscrossed thread that showed some of the skin of her upper arm, black fingerless gloves that had a middle finger loop that kept them in place, the flaps of the kimono were lined with red cloth and was held firmly in place by a simple, bow-less red obi, a pair of black shorts under the kimono since the way the kimono feel exposed most of her left leg, and simple straw sandals adorned her feet. Divine Retribution was secured on her hip along with a bottle of ink and an ornate brush made from the fur of her tail and enchanted bamboo.

The girl gave a happy wolf-howl and shaking off her head rapidly, which caused a glittery substance to shake loose from her hair, before the wood sprite said, "Such divine white light! Such beauty and grace that could only belong to the mother and origin of us all, Amaterasu-sama. Seeing you resurrected for a statue and being in your divine presence brings great joy to my spirit, for your brave sacrifice one-hundred years ago sealed away the evil that once plagued this area..."

The pinkette wood sprite sniffled and wiped away the tears of joy after her short speech, but Amaterasu inwardly rolled her eyes and yawned lightly before curling up and pretended to sleep, thinking about the male she wanted to see the most after her one-hundred years of absence.

The wood sprite's eye twitched lightly from her rising anger and impatience, but she stayed calm as she said, "Amaterasu-sama, please gaze above you and take in the condition of the land and sky... Since your untimely departure from this land, it has been ravaged by demons and monsters, but it just recently worsened to the point of pure chaos. Please use your power to banish the darkness and punish the ones responsible for this madness..."

Amaterasu perked her ears at the statement and expanded her inner sight to see that the wood sprite was speaking the truth, before she thought with a grin, _'I haven't been around for one-hundred years, so I'll explore, kick demon-ass, and get to find __**him**__ all at the same time...'_

Amaterasu saw the wood sprite's kimono wiggle slightly, before the sprite inquired, "Huh...? What's this? Has something snuck it's way into my kimono?"

This made Amaterasu look at the sprite more closely after her question and found that the sprite was quite attractive, for gods and goddesses, being around for a long time and seeing many beautiful things and creatures, unwittingly develop bisexuality. The sprite laughed, something tickling her inside her robe, and Amaterasu found it to be a pleasant sound, before the thing that caused the laughing bit popped out her kimono and landed in front of the sprite and Amaterasu. To most it looked like a bug, but Amaterasu knew that it was actually a male of the Poncle people, a race of very tiny people whose hats resemble insects to keep hidden from enemies.

The sprite said in an exasperated voice, "You again, Naruto?"

The Poncle male named Naruto got up before he said, louder than necessary and bouncing around a lot, "Itai, itai, itai~! Mou~! Sakura-chan, for a sprite, you sure make a big deal outta things! I was just making the conversation more interesting!"

The wood sprite, now known to be Sakura, then said angrily, "That doesn't mean you can sleep in my clothes, you dumb bug!"

Naruto then yelled, "I told a thousand times, I'm not a bug, I'm a Poncle! The great wandering artist, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Amaterasu, fully sitting up straight while watching with an amused look on her face, before Naruto continued with, "It won't be long 'til you're bowing at my mighty brush skills!"

Naruto pulled out a scroll and threw it at Amaterasu, who caught it with ease and opened to see an excellent ink painting of Sakura, but she had a feeling that Naruto didn't really drew it himself for she recognized the art style right away.

"Better than the real thing, right?", Naruto asked cockily, but before Amaterasu could answer, he bounced towards her and landed in between the folds of her kimono right above her breasts and asked, "What's with you, Kemari-chan? You look like you'd rather be anywhere but here..."

Amaterasu felt a vein on her forehead pulse from anger, before she grabbed Naruto by the scuff of his shirt and dangled him many feet above the ground, for if she dropped at the height she was holding him at, it could seriously injury or kill him.

But he merely shouted angrily, "ARE YOU FREAKIN' NUTS? A GUY AS HANDSOME AS ME SHOULDN'T BE HANDLED SO RUDELY! THE GREAT ORE-SAMA TAKES OFFENSE TO THIS! I WILL USE MY SWORD, KIRUSUMI, ON YOU IF YOU DON'T LET GO OF ME THIS INSTANT!"

But a sudden and loud roar which was very, and unpleasantly, familiar to Amaterasu, which made Naruto's anger vanish as he asked in a fearful voice, "W-w-w-what was that?"

"O great goddess Amaterasu-sama, I have used almost all of my energy to protect Heionouka Village, but they still live on, for their spirits lie safe in my fruit on the tree. Cut the fruit free and the village will be restored." Sakura said before she disappeared in a swirl of cherry blossoms and reappeared as the guardian tree, Konohana, but it looked withered, weak, and on the verge of death and she continued with, "I trust in you and believe you will lead us down the right path..."

By that time, Amaterasu now had her palm face and Naruto was standing in the middle of it as everything happened, Naruto itching for adventure and Amaterasu knew she had to bring peace back the world.

Naruto then said, "So the tree's back to normal, eh? Sakura-chan said a lot of weird things, but I do know that we need to cut the fruit with everyone's spirits in down. Thing is that it's so high up, that we're gonna need a special power to get it down and end the creepy darkness that's surrounding the area..."

Amaterasu nodded, knowing that all of her powers had left her in her involuntary absence, and placed Naruto on the top of her head, before her light, sweet voice said, "Looks like we're gonna be stuck together for awhile Naruto-kun, so it's best that you know my name, which is Amaterasu, but you may call me Asuka."

Naruto nodded before he asked, "With the characters meaning 'fragrance of the bright day'?"

Amaterasu nodded, before Naruto continued with, "So Asuka, ready to go?"

"Yup," Was all Amaterasu said before she quickly walked into the doorway of light where they would continue onward.

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><p>Yosh! Got it done! :3<p>

Please review, or else Amaterasu will get angry/sad face...


	2. Cave of Shikarura and Heionouka Village

Starting up the second chapter! Woot! :D

Flames will be used to cook my food. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Okami, I just like using them for my own entertainment.

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><p>When Amaterasu and Naruto arrived on the other side of the doorway of light, they ended up in an area that seemed to be multiple, floating islands covered in basic vegetation connected by bridges in the middle of space-like area, stars and a crescent moon decorating the dark sky, far from the chaos of the outside world.<p>

"Woah, Asuka where are we? And why did it suddenly get so quiet?" Naruto asked in confusion as he took in the new surroundings, awed by the landscape.

Amaterasu grinned at Naruto's reaction before she said, "We're merely in the Cave of Shikarura, but Sakura-san's power expanded it to a completely different realm. But we must continue onward and keep our eyes open..."

With that, they continued forward until they encountered a mirror held on a small shrine, white light shining onto a flat, circular praying-stone in front of the mirror.

"Ah, that's an Origin Mirror!" Naruto loudly said, slightly hurting Amaterasu's ears, before she asked him, "You know of them, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, before she stepped onto the praying-stone, the light growing stronger as she chanted a simple prayer, retaining her memories into the simple mirror. After finishing up with the mirror, Amaterasu continued on, claiming yen and small treasures on the way, when they stopped at a broken bridge.

She cursed under her breath, annoyed that she was separated from her powers during her one-hundred year absence, before Naruto said, "Shit, the bridge is out, but I'll fix it no problem!"

She sensed Naruto intently focusing before time froze for a split-second, and she sensed Naruto filling in where the bridge was broken with ink, and then the bridge was fixed, as if it was never broken.

Naruto smirked smugly as he said, "Awesome, ne? Just a little technique I've mastered called Rejuvenation, a brush god power that restores broken or missing things, dattebayo! It took me forever to learn it, but there's thirteen brush techniques, each one a power of the thirteen brush gods. They originally were all a part of one powerful deity, but when the deity died, the split from the deity and scattered all over Heiwakokka," Naruto paused as he continued with, voice getting whiny at the end, "The gods dwell around us, but how could anyone be powerful enough to master all thirteen, dattebayo?"

Amaterasu lightly chuckled, knowing that she was the deity he spoke of, but now she knew where the brush gods were. She crossed the bridge and got more yen from the nearby jars, before they came up to a stone traveling-marker that had the words, 'River of the Heavens,' carved into it. Amaterasu looked over and saw the stardust river was merely a small puddle, a mockery of the greatness it once was.

"The River of the Heavens, THE fabled stardust river? I don't see anything like that! I only see that tiny puddle over there, but that couldn't possibly be it, dattebayo!" Naruto stated loudly, quite perplexed by the situation.

She noticed a hill next to them, and thought, _'Hell, why not? There might be something up there that might help me...'_

She climbed up the hill all the way to the top and stopped to admire the stars, to which Naruto commented with, "Wow, look at those stars shine brightly! I haven't seen such a beautiful night-sky in such a long time, dattebayo!"

Then, a constellation formed, depicting a Chinese dragon with part of its body weaving in and out of a scroll, but one of the stars from the constellation was missing.

"Cool, a constellation! But it's missing a star, so I guess I'll draw a new one, dattebayo..." Naruto said confidently, before he focused his energy and painted a dot where a star was supposed to be.

But instead of a star, like Naruto hoped, a dead leaf drifted downward, before he said angrily, "Damn! Looks like I'm not quite there yet, but I practiced a lot, dattebayo!"

Amaterasu lightly grinned at his attempt, before she inquired softly, "You tried your best and that's all that counts. Mind if I try with my brush and ink?"

Naruto nodded lightly, letting her take a shot at it, before she, not even needing to concentrate since she used to have powers greater than just filling stars, placed a dot. Sure enough, the star was filled in, leaving Naruto awe-struck, before the constellation glowed strongly, and before them was a male with short, ink-black hair and equally colored eyes, pale skin with red markings like Amaterasu, dragon ears, horns, and tail, four, differently colored orbs floated behind him, and simple white kimono with a grey obi. The area around them held a yellow sky and were surrounded by a mountainous area as they stood on thin air, Naruto looking around in awe and wonder.

The male with dragon features faked a smile as he bowed at Amaterasu before he said, knowing that she knew he was joking, "Ah, if it isn't mother Amaterasu-sama. If I knew you coming, I would've hid myself better."

Amaterasu rolled her eyes but smiled lightly, knowing that her "children" liked giving her some trouble and humor, before she said somewhat sarcastic and jokingly, "Hello Sai-kun, nice to see you as well. May I ask why there was a lack of communication or am I going to be difficult today?"

Sai gave a genuine grin and chuckle, silently missing his "mother" and they both knew it, before he said in a serious tone, "I apologize for not contacting you beforehand, but there was strong spiritual interference that made it extremely hard, if not impossible, to contact you over the long years. I, Yomigami no Sai, god of Restoration, have patiently waited for your return, never forgetting you. While you were away, the thirteen spirits of the brush's powers that you once possessed, myself included, have scattered across the land of Heiwakokka and lie in disarray..."

Amaterasu felt a slight pang of concern, her "children" could easily be targets of evil demons and greedy humans in their weakened states, before Sai continued, trying to ease his "mother's" emotions, "We all became constellations to keep ourselves alive and from any relative harm, but their powers are either being blocked by some sort of magic or have hidden themselves with such powerful magic that I can not communicate with them, but I do sense that they are all alive. The time has come to find and reunite all of the techniques. To revive the dried riverbed of the heavens and renew the flow of star dust, you must use your power."

Sai turned into a multicolored ball of light before his power returned to her, leaving barely any sign that Sai was there at all except for the constellation above them.

"Is he...?" Naruto asked, but he was interrupted by a chibi-version of Sai who floated near Naruto as he said, "No, I didn't die, but I gave her back her power of Rejuvenation. Long story short; I'm an addition to your group."

While Naruto was still processing the information, Amaterasu walked down the hill and stood in front of what was left of the River of the Heavens. With a few, effortless strokes of her brush, the river was restored to its former glory, leaving Naruto shocked and awed, and Sai with a sense of glee that his "mother" used his power so beautifully and gracefully. After swimming across the river, shaking off the stardust when she got to the other side, she opened a chest that contained an item called the Astral Pouch. Which meant that if she filled it completely, she could revive herself if she got too weak in battle, before she went through another portal that shone with a powerful, white light.

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><p>After running at break-neck speed through the next portion of the area, they made it to the inner area of the cave, where a large statue was dedicated to Shikarura, before these thick, wooden spikes closed off their way back. The sword of the statue was broken, but it wasn't something that Amaterasu couldn't fix. With barely two strokes of her brush, the statue was fully repaired and an incomplete constellation of a small rat with a large sword shone above them, before she filled in the missing star.<p>

A bright light shone and a female with warm brown eyes and matching hair color, which was in two buns, appeared, her skin lightly sun-kissed, but it looked darker against the white kimono, light-grey obi, and red markings along her skin and face, much like Amaterasu's and Sai's. Brown rat ears sat on the top of head near the buns in her hair and a thin rat-tail swished lightly in back of her, before she drew her sword, which grew five times larger than her when it was fully unsheathed, and slashed around randomly. They were now standing, face-to-face, in the yellow-sky, mountainous area where they stood on thin air.

The female smiled lightly as she said, "Well, well, well... If it isn't mother Amaterasu-sama... It's been awhile, but with all these monsters around, the only place I could take refuge in was in this shrine dedicated to ancient heroes."

"Good to see you're unharmed Tenten-chan, but do you have to go through the whole 'mother Amaterasu-sama'-thing? It just seems to dull the reunion feeling..." Amaterasu said, wishing internally that she could have been revived during a time the world wasn't in peril.

Tenten gave her a empathetic smile when she said, "Sorry about the circumstances mom, but if there's anything I can do to help you out, I'm at your service. May my power be of good use, for it was designed to conquer evil."

Tenten, much like Sai did, turned into a multicolored ball of light and returned back into Amaterasu's being, before chibi-version of Tenten appeared next to Amaterasu, who smiled at her endearing 'daughter' kindly. Tenten smiled back, before Amaterasu sliced a large rock in half, only because Naruto was doubtful that she getting all these powers.

When said rock was sliced in half with little effort, Tenten beaming as her power was being used so effortlessly, before Naruto said, "Wow! Didn't think you had in ya, Asuka! You're way out of my league now, dattebayo..."

A little light-bulb went off over Naruto's head and he grinned mischievously, the look on his face was something that Sai and Tenten didn't like, before he said, "Hey Asuka, if you're Shiranui resurrected, you would have no problem mastering all thirteen brush techniques, right? Could I, by any chance, tag along with you guys, at least until I'm as skilled as Asuka?"

Tenten and Sai were about to say no, when Amaterasu said, "Sure. As they say, 'the more, the merrier'!"

To which she continued with, "But I used to have all these powers, so it will be easy for me to master them. You, on the other hand, won't have it so easy. Do you still want to go through with your decision, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto didn't even hesitate as he answered with, "Of course! Uzumaki Naruto never backs down from a challenge, dattebayo!"

_'Despite his lack of motivation on certain things, he has the resolve to do things when he sets his mind to it.'_ Amaterasu thought before she cut down the wooden spikes to continue back to the outside world.

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><p>After encountering and defeating many green imps, weak, monkey-like monsters with bamboo flutes that come in large groups, they exited back outside of Konohana. The darkness hasn't let up all, making Sai and Tenten very uneasy, before Amaterasu sliced the giant peach-like fruit down and released the village from the grasp of the dark power. But something was still off, so Amaterasu investigated this, to which she found out that everyone was in a statue-like state and all the plants and animals were nowhere to be seen. Another roar, that Amaterasu knew belonged to Orochi, echoed through the village, sending her three traveling companions into a fearful state. She noticed vaguely that the sky was pitch black, before she took on her wolf-form and sprinted to the highest point in the village, only to be correct in her theory. No light was shining, not the moon, sun, or stars were in the sky, keeping the area frozen in time.<p>

"Oh man, this is really bad, dattebayo. The sun's not even out... I wish that it was back, dattebayo..." Naruto said, quite unnerved by the overpowering darkness around them.

Amaterasu gave a wolfish grin and thought in her wolf form, _'And the sun goddess said,'_ drawing a circle in the sky as she continued with, _"'Let there be light!"'_

The sun was then back in the sky, bringing the village back normal, causing Naruto to gape slightly before he said, "Well, your name is Amaterasu, so it make sense that you'd have the Sunrise technique right from the start. Now let's go see the restored village and talk to some of them."

"Hm? What's this?" a voice behind Amaterasu said, before she turned around and saw the owner of the voice.

The owner of the voice was male in his early thirties, skin very lightly sun-kissed and held himself in a honorable, respectable air. His orange hair was short and spiky, eyes dark-purple with rings within the iris, and many piercings on his face and ears, and a few on his lips. He wore a simple, red kimono with a dark-auburn obi and simple grass-woven sandals. Amaterasu thought he was attractive, but her feelings belonged to another.

"A white wolf?" The male questioned, unable to see her markings and Divine Instrument, before he continued with, "You can't be the same white wolf that helped Shikarura defeat Orochi many years ago?"

Amaterasu chuckled mental as she thought, _'It was more like him helping me, but I couldn't say that's how it was since I died...'_

He shook his head as he said, "No, you couldn't be. That story's a hundred years old and wolf could never live that long..."

"However, you do look a lot the statue of Shiranui... But you don't look as intelligent..." The man commented, causing large amounts of anger fill Amaterasu's body.

_'WHAT? You think I'm stupid, you ass?'_ She thought as she got into position to attack, which caused the man in front of her to back away, giving empty threats to retaliate if she attacked, but he knew the wolf was much stronger.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw three green imps come toward them, Naruto drawing his sword to try and fight them off. But Amaterasu had different plans as she sent Naruto flying, before she grabbed the orange-haired man by the collar of his kimono, swung him like a sword and hit the three imps away, and threw the man a short distance, taking on the demons after the man was out of danger and changed back into her human-goddess form to battle the imps. She quickly dealt with them, the imps dying off in a poof of flowers, when the nearby pond and nature around it came back to life, which released small, multicolored orbs of energy that she knew was praise, which made her feel like she was closer to her original power-level, even it was just a little.

Naruto let out a small whistle as he said, "Damn Asuka, you get dangerous when angry. The guy you threw was Hanashi Pein, the village leader, so it's best that we check to see if he's okay, dattebayo..."

Amaterasu nodded, glad to be able to check on Pein with him not recognizing her as the being who threw him, since she was in her wolf-form when she threw him, before she quickly walked to where the pathway to Konohana intersected the pathway from the overlook, which was the highest in the village, that lead to the village. She found Pein, unconscious and slightly delirious, on the ground in front of a male in a dark-grey kimono, purple eyes, and sand-blonde hair playing a flute, ignoring that Pein is right in front of him and kept on playing. The sound of the flute reminded Amaterasu of her most precious person, a person she hadn't seen in one-hundred years, but she fought the urge to take his flute and traveled towards the village, wondering how much the world changed since her departure one-hundred years ago.

* * *

><p>Amaterasu first noticed that the village hasn't changed that much, only new people and that houses were different, but only slightly. The peacefulness that the village usually had seemed to stay the same as well, but she knew that low-level demons, much like the imps she faced earlier, liked to torment places like this. Sadly, this caused faith in the gods to diminish greatly, which made Amaterasu feel angry and saddened by the fact, before mentally vowing to renew the world's faith in the gods, one step at a time.<p>

As Amaterasu walked through the village, Naruto explained who was who and what kind of connection they had to each other:

Pein, whom she had met earlier, was the village leader and made sure that everything was peaceful. He did his job well and was loyal and caring to the villagers, but had the most loyalty, love, caring feeling for his wife, Hanashi Konan.

Konan, described by Naruto as a lovely woman with blue hair, grey eyes, lower-lip piercing, light skin, and shapely figure, which made Tenten smack him upside the head. She usually wore a grey kimono with sapphire-blue obi and is Pein's wife, just as loving and loyal to him as he is to her. But when Pein needs her help from time-to-time, she was a diligent worker and is very educated, helping from giving her opinion and advice for an important village-wide decision to manual labor. Naruto also noted that she's a very good cook and she makes these very good cherry-flavored rice cakes, which Amaterasu took note of.

The youngest of the village was a twelve-year-old boy by the name of Sabaku no Gaara. He had blood-red spiky hair and icy-blue eyes which were surrounded by dark, heavy lines caused by severe insomnia, wearing a simple brown yukata with a black obi and simple straw-woven sandals. But the most noticeable thing about the boy was that he was always around his pet tanuki-like dog, Shukaku, and they always created some sort of mischief in his older brother's garden.

Said older brother was Sabaku no Kankuro, a brunette male with dark eyes who was seventeen-years-old who also wore a brown yukata but wears a light-brown obi. He makes a great career out of creating and selling beautiful puppets and selling home-grown vegetables, despite his young age. But what drives Kankuro insane was that Gaara and Shukaku keep continuously digging up a good portion of his turnips, just to find one extremely odd-shaped on and they won't stop until they find it. Thankfully, the eldest of the Sabaku siblings, even though she lived in a different house in the village, helped bring in money and food for all of them.

The eldest of the Sabaku siblings was Sabaku no Temari, a blonde female with teal eyes who was twenty-one, her great intellegnce, attractiveness, and great ability to brew sake made her well-known throughout the nation of Heiwakokka. Her hair was tied back in her signature quadruple ponytails and she wore a deep-purple yukata with a deep-blue obi, making her stand out against the more subdued colors that the village wore, but that's how she liked things, unlike the male who has captured her romantic interest.

Said male was known as Nara Shikamaru, descendant of the legendary hero, Nara Shikarura. He has reached the age of eighteen, but his intellegnce matched, if not surpassed, Temari's but the dark-haired, dark eyed male was very lazy and gave everything a bored look, always keeping his hair in a spiky ponytail because it was 'less troublesome to deal with'.

Amaterasu inwardly laughed as she thought, _'He's just like Shikarura; lazy unless motivated otherwise, always kept his hair up, and greatly loved the village blonde...'_

She quickly transformed into her wolf-form, ducking behind a building to do so, before she went over to the turnip part of the garden and dug some of them. After finding a few duds, she found the Oddly-shaped turnip and quickly found Gaara and Shukaku, surprise written on the red-head's features.

Before Amaterasu gave him the turnip, Naruto said, "We'll only give y' the turnip if y' stop messin' with Kankuro's garden..."

Gaara nodded before Amaterasu gave him the turnip, a happy gleam in his eyes, to which Gaara unknowingly released a large amount of Praise. Amaterasu gave a wolfish smile before going behind a building and transforming back into her original form. She walked along the path that lead towards Juugoya Field, only seen as a young-woman with long black hair, no red markings, and Sai and Tenten unseen to human eyes, but she stopped when she hear a frustrated groan come from her left. She looked over and saw Konan washing clothes near the end of the small river, annoyance clear on her expression.

Amaterasu walked over and asked gently, "Ano, is something wrong Reifujin-san?"

Konan turned around, seeing her human-form, instead of her goddess-form, before she smiled tiredly and replied with, "Kinda... Some mischievous demon took the pole I need to dry my laundry, so I've set-back a bit..."

Amaterasu secretly got out her brush and used Rejuvenation, replacing the missing pole while Konan wasn't looking, before she said, "I found this pole-like stick on my way into the village late last night, but I think you'd get more use out of it than me..."

With that, Konan looked over and found a new pole in place of her old one before she made a happy squeal, hugged Amaterasu, and said happily, "Oh, thank you kindly! I had prayed earlier today for a new pole, but I didn't think it would come true! Thank you... um..."

"Asuka, Asuka Hizashiko," Amaterasu replied, easily coming up with a family name to go along with her on-the-spot given name/nickname, before she continued with, "And sometimes good things can happen if you have faith."

Konan smiled at her before thanking her again, to which Amaterasu helped hang the laundry to dry, Konan in better spirits than she was a few minutes ago.

When all the clothes were hung to dry, Konan smiled at Amaterasu as she said, "Now only if the sun was closer so the clothes could dry faster, but I guess that's asking too much..."

_'Not exactly...'_ Amaterasu that as she secretly used Sunrise and the sun was now closer, drying the clothes much more quickly.

Konan had an awed look on her face before Amaterasu said, "The gods must've heard you and granted your wish."

Amaterasu and Konan waved goodbye to each other before Amaterasu continued onward, having gotten Praise from assisting Konan, continuing toward Juugoya Field. But Konan noticed divine red markings, something she read about in a old scroll about markings of the gods and divine beings, on Amaterasu's skin, starting to think that the gods are closer to humans than she originally thought.

* * *

><p>As she passed Shikamaru's house, she and her traveling companions heard very loud snoring coming from there, giving curious stares before walking by and arrived at the entrance to Juugoya Field, but said entrance was blocked by a giant boulder. A merchant with limp, dark hair and dark eyes was trying to shove the boulder away, skin very pale, bags under his eyes, and a bad cough.<p>

"Move! Move!" The merchant said under his breath, coughing vigorously before he continued with, "Dammit! You can do this Hayate! Your mind says move the rock, but your body feels as heavy as lead! I hope it isn't because of demonic possession..."

After Hayate said those very words, an evil mist surrounded Amaterasu as many green imps and a larger red imp with a biwa appeared around her, but she took them out fairly quick. The nature returned to the area, Amaterasu was granted praise, and Hayate looked much healthier than before.

Hayate stood off to the side as said, "Hm, I feel much better and relaxed, almost as light as a feather, but it doesn't make moving this boulder any easier. Who the hell blocked the only way in and out of the village?"

"That's what we'd like t' know too!" Naruto said loudly, drawing Hayate's attention to Naruto and Amaterasu, blushing slightly at the sight of Amaterasu in the human-form he could see and not her true, goddess-form.

"S-say, do you live in the village?" Hayate asked, cursing inwardly at his stuttering.

"No, but I have been here since late last night, so I know almost everyone in the village." Amaterasu said to Hayate, the information she gave not a complete lie.

He gave a few light coughs before he said, "I'd like to move this boulder, but it's far to heavy for me to move. There's a guy in this village by the name of Shikamaru, descendant of Shikarura, who would be able to move this boulder easily. If I may ask, could you please fetch him for me? I would do it myself, but my health hasn't been the greatest recently..."

"It's no problem. I'll be back as soon as possible." Amaterasu said with a smile before turning to find Shikamaru, not seeing Hayate looking at her with awe and strong affinity.

But she wasn't oblivious to his feeling as she thought, _'Sorry Hayate-san, but my heart belongs to another...,'_before she was in front of his house, his snoring reverberating throughout his whole house.

Amaterasu knocked loudly and said, "Shikamaru-san! I need to speak with you! If you would kindly wake up and answer, it would be most appreciated!"

After a few minutes of no response, Amaterasu knocked on his door again and was still met with no answer, greatly angering the goddess. She briskly slid the door open, which caused a loud clatter, but Shikamaru was still sleeping like a rock. She angrily sliced the large jar with Power Slash, revealing an entrance to the underground part of Shikamaru's house where the snoring was coming from, before she traveled downward. She found Shikamaru sleeping on his simple futon, dark-grey yukata and matching obi in a sloppy fashion as he drooled onto his large, wooden sword. He mumbled a few things in his sleep as Amaterasu tried to wake him up gently, on Naruto's request, but he didn't wake up, before she pushed him off his futon and he landed on the floor with a 'thud'. Shikamaru grumbled as he got up, looked at Amaterasu, mumbled something about 'troublesome women' and 'needed to lock his door more often', and feel back asleep, aggravating Amaterasu to the point of strangling the lazy bum.

But Naruto said ingeniously, "Hey, if he's asleep, then he can't struggle if you, say, drag him by the scuff of his yukata and wake him up again in front of Hayate so he'll have no choice in the matter..."

Amaterasu blinked twice before she said, "Dear god, that's bloody brilliant..."

With that, Amaterasu grabbed the sleeping Shikamaru and dragged him to Hayate, Shikamaru waking up on his own they were only a meter or two away from Hayate.

Shikamaru stood and said angrily, "What the hell? Why th' hell did y' drag me here you crazy bitc-!"

But before he could finish his sentence, Hayate, coughing lightly before he asked, "Are you Shikamaru-san?"

"Yes I am, but please don't interrupt me while I'm speaking..." Shikamaru said, glaring angrily at Amaterasu who didn't feel threatened at all.

"But I'm in need of your help moving this boulder," Hayate said, to which Shikamaru asked with a disbelieving, "What? Me?"

"I'm sure that someone who is the descendant of Shikarura could easily remove this boulder." Hayate said, trying to egg on the young male.

To help Hayate, and herself, Amaterasu added, "Unless, of course, you're not man enough to do it..."

Despite his laziness, Shikamaru doesn't back down from a challenge, so he stood straight and said, "It's not beyond my capability, but a rock of this size will be hard to move unless I warm up, as to not strain my body and make the task of moving the large stone more so of a difficult task..."

Shikamaru turned and walked towards the training grounds that was behind his house, going to 'warm up and stretch his body', leaving Amaterasu and Hayate to stand near the boulder. After a few minutes of waiting, plenty of time to prepare, Amaterasu got annoyed and walked to where Shikamaru went, only to find him laying on the ground and drinking sake while cloud-gazing.

He was completely unaware of Amaterasu was standing a few meters away as he muttered, throwing his empty sake bottle away, "Like hell I could move that thing by myself, like any human could! Eh, I'll move it tomorrow when I have more sake..."

But Amaterasu couldn't wait that long and her lack of patience, desire to kick demon ass, and deep want to see her loved one again made her find Temari, the village's sake brewer. When she found Temari and explained her situation, beginning the made-up part of the story as to why she needs sake for Shikamaru:

Her dearly loved fiancé was waiting for her to return to his village, but the rock blocked the way and if she didn't get there within two days he would be married off to a woman he didn't love, using fake-tears and everything.

Temari nodded before she said, "I would give you the sake now, but I was threatened by a demon imp with biwa and gave it sake to keep it calm. But when it left, it broke the water wheel on my water-mill that helps me make my sake, laughing as he walked away..."

Amaterasu nodded, having told Naruto to stand on the bridge and use Rejuvenation to fix it before she gave Naruto the hand signal, using Rejuvenation on the bridge, as she said, "I understand. Please inform me when it's working again..."

She took a few steps away from Temari, feigning a look of disappointment, before she heard Temari say, "Wait, Asuka-san! The water wheel, it's repaired and working again! I'll have the sake ready in no time!"

Amaterasu smiled as Naruto hopped back onto the top of her head, before she said, "That is great to hear!"

Amaterasu only had to wait a few minutes, but when the sake, which Temari named it 'Vista of the Gods', was completed, she got a small taste of the sake and found it was very good. She gave Shikamaru the sake, a little unwillingly because it was very good sake, before he started his warm-up, but she knew it wouldn't end well. She inconspicuously used Power Slice, making him think that he was able to slice through solid rock, before he ran over to the boulder blocking the way with Amaterasu following behind, finally slashing the boulder out of the way. Hayate was amazed by the feat, but Shikamaru had great suspicions that it wasn't his power at work before he ran to fight the demons beyond Heionouka village. Amaterasu felt Sakura materialize behind her, but she had a sickly pale look to her skin and a tired look on her face.

"Great Amaterasu-sama, it made my heart swell with joy as you helped them, my heart skipping a beat as I saw you slice that boulder in half." Sakura said softly, her body dangerously low on energy.

Naruto, oblivious to Sakura's lack of energy, asked loudly, "S' do we get a reward or somethin'?"

"I hardly think that your presence helped with anything, tiny bug!" Sakura said with some agitation, her tiredness adding to her bad mood.

"It's Naruto! N-A-R-U-T-O! Stop callin' me fuckin' bug! I'll crawl back into your kimono if y' call me a bug again!" Naruto said, smirking like the pervert that was quite obviously a part of his personality.

Sakura covered her chest area, very uncomfortable with the idea, before she said loudly, "My word!"

Naruto chuckled loudly before he said, "Mou, relax Sakura-chan! Kemari-chan's hair is softer and much more comfortable! Anyway, how 'bout that reward you mentioned earlier?"

And he would've continued before Amaterasu silenced him with small piece of cloth over his mouth, both Sakura and Amaterasu giving a sigh of relief at the newly acquired silence and enjoyed it for the short time that lasted.

Sakura then said, tiredness showing through her voice, "I must apologize, for I would reward you if I could, but I haven't the energy to do so. I barely have enough to muster up a small flower. Although my original body lies within the village, branched-off saplings of me protect many areas of the land of Heiwakokka, these extensions of me called Guardian Saplings. They collect the praise and worship that gives me my strength, but they're being eroded away by the recent evil and lack of faith. If this continues like this, my power and body will wither away and vanish."

Sakura turned slightly before continuing, not noticing that Amaterasu sat down and was reading some random scroll, voice saddened as she said, "And this situation is made even worse by the dark power that grows more with each passing day. Soon, life as we know it will be consumed entirely in no time..."

Naruto, finally grasping how serious the situation has become and got the cloth out of his mouth, said, "Damn, this is gettin' serious..."

Sakura then inquired, gaining back Amaterasu's attention, "Great and powerful Amaterasu-sama, could I boldly request of your assistance in restoring the Guardian Saplings by ridding of the curse that enslaves them? I will mark the locations of the nearest saplings on your map. I now barely have the energy to speak now, please don't let my humble request be in vain. Amaterasu-sama... May the fresh scent of flowers protect you always!"

With that, Sakura disappeared in a flurry of dieing cherry blossoms, truly emphasizing how serious the situation is. Naruto then mumbled something, but Amaterasu didn't pay attention to Naruto as she got and stretched, readying herself to continue on, with or without Naruto.

Naruto then said, standing on her shoulder now, "But since you're a goddess, what could go wrong? I mean, you get to save the world, kick demon ass, and get the rest of your brush techniques back. And get to learn 'em while your doing what goddesses should do! But at any rate, we should follow the marks Sakura-chan put on the map."

Amaterasu nodded, before moving quickly towards Juugoya Field, unaware that she was being watched by an unknown being.

* * *

><p>Wow, this took forever to write! But I'm content with how it came out. ^_^<p>

Please review! It will make me happy! ^w^


	3. Juugoya Field and Hana Valley

Chapter 3! Woot! :D

Flames will be used to cook my food. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Okami, I just like using them for my own entertainment. *smirks evilly*

Note: Amaterasu has maxed out capacity for her Solar Energy(which is 20), Astral Pouches(4), Ink Pots(10), and Yen(99,999,999), and merely uses the Praise she gets to make her power level stronger from, say, a weakened demi-god to her original power. Also, I'm replacing Sun Fragments with random treasures that are either within the actual game or completely made-up. And last but not least, she will know all Secret Brush Techniques at the same time as she gets a Brush Technique.

* * *

><p>Juugoya Field is a large, hilly field, a beautiful river flowing through the area, a healthy Guardian Sapling in bloom nearly in the middle of the field, and an upper plateau full of plant and wild-life. Or, it was suppose to be, but what Naruto and Amaterasu saw was different from what they remembered; almost all the plant and wildlife were gone, the Guardian Sapling looked like it would keel over any minute, the river looked sludge-like and toxic, and the area just reeked of evil energy.<p>

"Damn, this place is s'pposed t' be the most beautiful field in Heiwakokka, but the place is just givin' off a bad vibe, now half of the field a Curse-zone now, dattebayo. We better clear this out soon, before the numbers of demons get even greater..." Naruto said as the group moved along the Curse-zone, seeing that it covered more than half of the field.

As they neared the north-west corner of Juugoya Field, where the river flowed from, they found a small settlement near the cave-like entrance to Hana Valley where a young man with short, wavy blonde hair with a downward swirling ahoge, purple eyes, and was wearing a pair of glasses and a potter's outfit, but looked like he was struggling with chopping wood, which Amaterasu suspected was for a kiln to make his wares.

"Matthew! Oi Mattie! Did y' know what happened here?" Naruto asked loudly, grabbing the blonde potter's attention from chopping wood and turned to face Naruto and Amaterasu.

"Kinda, eh. I was chopping wood while my brother, Alfred, was taking a break under his favorite tree in Hana Valley and was admiring nature as usual, eh, when suddenly I heard a loud rumbling, kinda like an earthquake, eh, from the lake. Then a huge gust of wind blew from outta nowhere, eh." Matthew said, voice laced with confusion and concern at what had happened.

Naruto was made greatly unnerved by this news as Sai, Tenten, and Amaterasu listened in as Matthew continued with, "I'm not quite sure what happened next, but when I came to, everything was like this, eh. My kiln and art workshop just across the stream just up and disappeared when the Curse-zone appeared. The gods must be angered by the lack of faith in them, eh, and all Alfred and I wanted to do was live in peace with nature, but that looks like it won't be happening..."

Amaterasu, hoping to gain back some belief in the gods, then stated, "Please don't give up just yet, for I'm a traveling miko by the name of Asuka Hizashiko and I've used the power of divine chants and prayers to rid cursed areas such as this."

Matthew perked up at these words as he inquired, "Really, eh? You can get rid of Curse-zones? Then you can easily save my brother and Nara-san who ran into Hana Valley not too long ago, eh."

Amaterasu nodded, now knowing that Shikamaru was nearby, before she added, "But this zone can only be purified after I purify Hana Valley, but I have the utmost faith in my powers and in the gods."

After talking a bit more to Matthew, Amaterasu waved goodbye to Matthew before she entered Hana Valley, having learned from Matthew that a figure had ran from the lake into Heionouka village, meaning that it was very likely that someone from the village was a part of the revival of Orochi.

* * *

><p>Hana Valley is an area known for its' floral beauty, scenic walking path, and legend of an orb that has supposedly mythical powers that causes flora to grow in its' light, but the place looked horrid:<p>

The water was brown, sludge-like, and toxic smelling, the air had a putrid smell to it, like rotting meat and vegetation, the plant-life was nearly dead, and there all the animals have fled the area, demon imps taking their place and causing more havoc and chaos.

Amaterasu found a treasure chest right before a bridge made from a fallen tree-trunks, to which she opened and found a enchanted charm that aided one as they traveled, thus the reason it was called a Traveler's Charm. She pocketed the charm in her miko pants, making sure not to activate it, before crossing the tree-trunks and found a few red and green imps eating, drinking, and dancing around a lit fire-pit. They stopped when they sensed her get closer and fought her, but she dealt with them quickly and they were defeated with ease and grace. A small island in the middle of the toxic stream was trying to revive itself after the imps were defeated, but was drawn back into its cursed state.

"What the hell? Y' got rid of th' demons, so why didn't the Divine Intervention work, dattebayo?" Naruto questioned, wondering why it didn't work.

Amaterasu, knowing why, said, "The curse in this area is more powerful than it seems, coupled with faith in the gods has diminished over the years, so their power has been weakened. We need to do something about this cursed air and water before they could do anything..."

The group continued up the path, but stopped when they encountered a cursed tree, which tried to attack them by chucking fruit at them and missed. To clear the Curse-zone as quickly as possible, Amaterasu ran up the trail at break-neck speeds until they reached a giant wall-painting, but it was covered in some sort of red and orange graffiti. As she completely rounded the corner, Amaterasu saw Shikamaru sleeping against a large boulder, causing her to sigh and walk towards the lazy male, but a demonic mist swirled around her. Two green imps appeared, but what caught Amaterasu's attention was the large yellow imp with a taiko drum with thick bachi, or drumsticks, which the yellow imp used to send shock-waves underground. She dealt with the green imps very quickly, but Amaterasu had to wait for the yellow imp to come up from underground to attack from behind, where it was the most vulnerable. When the demonic mist disappeared, the wall-painting glowed brightly in a yellow light and then the graffiti was immediately splattered off, causing the sleeping Shikamaru to awake from his slumber.

"Hn? What's with all the lights and sounds?" Shikamaru asked groggily as he got up, only to notice Amaterasu standing nearby, before he inquired in a some-what rude tone, "You! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Making sure you don't get killed." Was Amaterasu's reply, making sure to use no tact at all in said response.

"Tch, troublesome woman. Go home, Hana Valley is too dangerous for a chick..." Shikamaru said lazily, unaware of the anger the was lit by his words as he tried to move the large boulder out of the way.

Amaterasu was just barely keeping her anger in check as Shikamaru continued with, "Beyond this point is my special training grounds, which is the perfect place to sle-"

She raised her eyebrows in question, anger completely forgotten as she was now listening intently, before he recovered with, "To s'lect techniques of mine that I need to work on. Now go away, before you get attacked by some demon..."

As Shikamaru tried to shove the boulder out of the way, Amaterasu silently flipped him the bird before walking over to the platform and studied the wall-painting, feeling something was off about it.

"Woah, check out this out! Very impressive art work! From what Mattie said, the crystal sphere makes plant life, mainly trees, grow is enshrined here." Naruto stated, but his face went from excited to confused before he asked, "Say, don't feel like something is missing from this thing?"

Amaterasu nodded lightly, before it came to her and she said, "Kind of like the sun?"

They both looked at each other, sharing the same exact thought, before Amaterasu used her brush to do Sunrise on the wall-painting. It glowed a bright red-orange, it then having an orange sun added to the wall painting before the valley shook, sun-like markings appeared on the boulder, and said boulder exploded, releasing foul, stagnant air, more murky-looking water, and a cave with a long pathway. Shikamaru was, thankfully, taking a break from trying to move the boulder and wasn't injured by it, but quickly checked out what was the cause all the noise that was interrupting his meditation(napping).

"What the fuck?" Shikamaru asked, now very awake, before he continued with, "Eh, whatever. Now I can go sleep- Er, train. Yeah... Train really hard."

Before Amaterasu, Naruto, and the others could call out Shikamaru's lie, he sprinted off into the cave, leaving the group thrown for a loop.

Naruto blinked twice before he asked, "How come he c'n run so fast when I've never seen 'm exercise a day in his life?"

Amaterasu merely shrugged, not sure how to answer Naruto's rhetorical question without being too sarcastic, before they continued onward. She sprinted along the cave's path, easily jumping and doing some flippy-tricks to clear the edge she came to without stopping, before she stopped abruptly at the end of the path which revealed a room with a tiny, twitching, green sapling right in the middle. Behind the tiny sapling was a strange alter with many orange markings on it and to the left of the sapling was an area blocked on by wooden spikes.

Naruto looked around the room in curiosity as Amaterasu walked closer to the sapling, before they were right in front of the sapling, to which Naruto commented with, "What a weird place... Is this really the place Shikamaru was talkin' about and where is the lazy bastard anyway?"

Amaterasu shrugged again, not really up for talking, before a scent caught her attention. She focused in on the sapling before her and inhaled again, picking up the faint scent of Sakura from it, which Naruto noticed as well. Both contemplated why the sapling was so small and how it related to the wall painting, before Amaterasu picked up Shikamaru's scent and followed it. She cut through the wooden spikes with ease and followed along the path, making a quick stop at a nearby Origin Mirror to save her memories, before they entered a circular room with four lit torches and found Shikamaru with his katana-like bokken drawn and in an attack stance.

"Oh, what now?" Naruto yelled indignantly, getting annoyed by all the interruptions, before Shikamaru replied with an equally annoyed tone, "This ferocious beast has invaded my private training grounds and now I must defeat it with my new technique, Shikamaru-Style SHIKAMARU..."

"Ferocious beast?" Amaterasu questioned as she looked over, only seeing a sleeping bear on top of a shining, green orb, completely harmless to anyone.

"You have some nerve beast, thinking you can slip in here and not pay the consequences..." Shikamaru continued, shifting his body into a full attack position, ready to attack at any moment.

"Just looks like your typical sleepy bear to me..." Naruto muttered, but Shikamaru brushed off Naruto's words with, "Enough talk! My blade yearns for battle!"

"You should give him some help so he doesn't make himself look like an idiot..." Sai whispered to Amaterasu, who lightly nodded and had her ink and brush out right when Shikamaru started his barrage of 'strikes'.

"SHI-!"

"KA-!"

"MARU!"

"SHIKAMARU!"

With those four war cries, he 'cut' through the four torches, before he said, "Now for the finishing touch..."

He sliced at the bear, but Amaterasu didn't assist him with that strike, so it merely woke the bear for about two seconds before it leaned back and fell to the ground with a loud thud, still in a deep sleep. Shikamaru silently re-sheathed his bokken and stood up straight, re-adjusting his kimono slightly.

Shikamaru, then remembering that he had an audience, fake-coughed lightly before he said, "It was a foolish attempt to make place your own, but commend you for your efforts. I suggest you make your home somewhere else. Besides, I have more troublesome demons to take care of..."

Before anyone could comment on Shikamaru's statement, he ran out the area faster than one could blink, leaving the group in a mild state of surprise.

"How the hell does he do that?" Tenten asked incredulously, still not quite sure how a guy that lazy could run so fast.

"That, my dear Tenten-chan, may forever be a mystery of life." Amaterasu said with a carefree smile, the other three shrugging and found it to be a good enough answer.

Amaterasu then looked at the large, glowing green orb, the object looking very familiar, before Naruto said, "That thing looks like orb in the wall painting..."

Her eyes widened in realization before rolling the large gem into the room with the sapling in it, rolling it onto the alter, and a jet of water made the large gem stay up in the air, but the sapling still was small and green. The group looked confused as to why the sapling wasn't growing, before Amaterasu realized that there was no sunlight, the missing piece of the ceremony. She quickly used Sunrise, making the other three in her group do a collective face-palm, after-which they returned their attention to the gem, which was glowing bright green, before the bright green energy shoot out of the gem and hit the sapling. The room glowed a pale-green color as the sapling stretched and expanded and before they knew it, the tiny sapling had grown into a large, fully-grown tree, but it was whithered and nearly-lifeless. But before anyone could comment, the sky above glittered and shone, revealing another constellation, which meant another Brush God. After filling in the missing two stars, a bright light shone before revealing a young man with orange, spiky hair, pinkish-orange eyes, and lightly sun-kissed skin, orange monkey ears, long monkey tail, and red markings adorned his body. He carried a golden shō, playing a short song before he stopped and smiled lightly at Amaterasu, who smiled back.

"Ah, okaa-sama, it has quite some time since I last seen you." The male said, his voice surprisingly soft and gentle to the ears.

"It's good to see you as well, Juugo-kun, and thank you for not being too formal with greeting me." Amaterasu said, glad to see yet another 'child' of hers as they both sat down, the surrounding area now the yellow, mountainous terrain that always appeared when she released her 'children'.

Juugo merely smiled back as he continued with, "I kindly thank you for releasing me from my confines. I, Sakigami no Juugo, am one of the triumvirate of flora gods known as the Hanagami. My brethren have been entrusted with the brush techniques known as Greensprout. Please use my power wisely."

He then played a lovely tune on his shō before he turned into a multi-colored orb of light and merged with Amaterasu, however, a few seconds later, a chibi version of Juugo appear next to Sai and Tenten.

"So," Naruto said, bring the deities back to reality, as he continued with, "now that we have the Bloom technique, you think we can bring the Guardian Saplings back to their former beauty?"

Amaterasu nodded as she got out her ink and brush, drawing a circle around the branches of the tree, before a flurry of energy circled the tree, reviving the blossoms and power the tree once had, cherry-blossom petals fluttering through the air. Right after the tree was revived, the petals seemed to be pulled towards the tree, before the petals burst outwards, sending a wave of purifying energy in its' wake. The wave continued on its' path, making the flora green and lively, purifying the water instantly, and fauna of all types returned to the cleansed areas. When the blast of energy ended, a calm breeze passed through and one could almost feel the energy of nature become balanced yet again, everything feeling happier and more lively. The Guardian Sapling released a great amount of Praise and her body absorbed it, feeling more of her strength return to her, which caused a small smile to make its' way across her face.

Naruto, after a minute or two of awe and amazement, then said excitedly, "Wow! That some damn-good Divine Intervention, dattebayo!"

Amaterasu nodded lightly, smile still on her face, before the group exited the room and headed back the way they came, but when they got to the area with the wall painting, they were attacked by two green imps and a yellow imp. Amaterasu, more powerful than the first time she fought them, defeated them faster than before and when she finished them off, collecting three Demon fangs from them, more nature sprang forth from the area. The patch of flora released some Praise, returning more of Amaterasu's strength, while a few boars returned to the area, glad to have everything back to normal. She gave the boars a feed-bag full of seeds, which they happily ate up and gave her some Praise for the kind deed, before the group continued onward. Amaterasu continued to revive cursed patches of land, wilted sakura trees, apple trees, and the occasional four-leaf clovers, before the group made it back to the fire-pit that multiple imps were sitting around. She took care of them quite easily, her newly returned strength showing through as she fought off the demon imps, but this time the Divine Intervention worked, revealing a fertile islet with a sakura tree, a four-leaf clover, a treasure chest, and a blonde male asleep in the middle of it.

Amaterasu jumped onto the islet with ease and landed next to the unconscious male, before she lightly shook the male's shoulder and said lightly, "You know this isn't the greatest place to fall asleep right...?"

The male's eyes blinked open, revealing bright blue eyes behind a pair of glasses, before he sat up quickly and asked, "Who are you?"

Amaterasu was about to speak, before Naruto yelled, "Alfie! Mattie's worried sick about y' and you're out here sleeping?"

The blonde male, now known as Alfred, Matthew's brother, wore a shocked expression before he jumped to his feet and said, "You're right Naruto! I, the Hero, shall immediately return to Mattie and help him!"

With that, Alfred took off towards Juugoya Field, laughing in a some-what obnoxious manner, as Amaterasu sat there in a state that can only be described as: What the fuck just happened here...?

Naruto merely said, "Alfred is weird, so it's best to not talk to him that much..."

Amaterasu just nodded, still very confused about what had just happened, before she stood up and used Bloom on the sakura tree and four-leaf clover, regaining some of her strength, and opened the chest to find a scroll with tips and suggestions by a wandering artist. Amaterasu, jumping back to the main path, finished reviving the plant-life before she exited Hana Valley, now restored to its' natural beauty.

* * *

><p>As Amaterasu walked passed the house Matthew and Alfred lived in and the two were talking to each other before they noticed her coming from Hana Valley's entrance, and judging from their faces, they both had something to say to her.<p>

Alfred, having a some-what guilty expression, then said, "Sorry 'bout not thanking you earlier. I wasn't aware of how bad things had gotten..."

"It's alright, but you should probably find a safer place for a nap." Amaterasu said with a small smile on her face, the tone of her voice was kind and forgiving.

Alfred's face brightened up, before Matthew bowed lightly to her and said, "Thank you Asuka-san! Hana Valley is back to its' former beauty and the river is clean and pure again! How can we ever thank you?"

Amaterasu smiled warmly as she said, "There is no need to thank me, for it was my faith in the gods' power that helped cleanse Hana Valley, and that very same faith will help me revitalize Juugoya Field."

Her warm smile left Alfred and Matthew in a dazed awe as she then turned and traveled towards the withered Guardian Sapling, leaving small flowers behind with each step she took before they disappeared a few seconds later.

"Alfred...?"

"Yeah Mattie?" Alfred asked as he turned his head to his elder twin brother.

"Is it just me, or did I see light-red markings of a divine-being on her face, eh?" Matthew asked, disbelief in his tone and face.

"It's not just you, 'cause I saw them as well..."

The brothers looked at each with shock and awe, before they promised out-loud to each other that they would pray to the gods more often.

* * *

><p>Amaterasu now stood in front of the wilted Guardian Sapling, before she used Bloom on the decrepit-looking thing, causing it to sprout forth beautiful sakura blossoms and become alive and healthy again. The Sapling's aura of life and purity pulled towards the Sapling's trunk before it flung outwards in all directions, cleansing the land and water of all evils and impurities that plagued the same area while under the Curse-zone. When Juugoya Field was restored to its' natural beauty, the Guardian Sapling released a large amount of Praise that Amaterasu absorbed into her body, returning more of her former strength.<p>

Naruto let out a long whistle before he said, "Damn! That Curse-zone bit the dust quicker th'n I could say 'Dattebayo', and I can say 'Dattebayo' pretty-damn quickly! Everything is back to normal and just feel that fresh breeze! At the rate we're goin', Heiwakokka will be rid of demons in no time!"

Amaterasu smiled at Naruto's statement, before she sensed a revived energy come from Heionouka. Sakura's tree, at first bare of any leaves or branches, then glowed a bright green before healthy branches covered with vibrant green leaves sprouted forth it, showing Sakura's restored power from her revitalized Guardian Saplings.

"Looks like Sakura-chan is feeling the lifted curses too, seeing how her tree is returning to its' former beauty..." Naruto noted, a bit in awe as to how much could be done with a little divine power.

Amaterasu nodded as she said, "Indeed, but we can visit her later. Juugoya Field is back to normal, but I haven't been here in one-hundred years and I wish to look a bit..."

Juugo, the partial namesake of Juugoya Field, quietly said, "I also sense another brush god nearby. It's faint, but I can sense it..."

Sai and Tenten agreed, also sensing their comrade, before Amaterasu said, "Then let's explore, shall we?"

* * *

><p>And... Done~! :D<p>

Please read and review~! :)


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